Saturday, January 28, 2012

I am now under the dryer and I just wanted to do an update on what I've done so far.

:)

After the application of the relaxer, I rinsed it thoroughly then did a 2 minute protein treatment with the LeKair Cholesterol Plus. This product has mineral oil but it really doesn't bother me because I shampoo right after. I used the shampoo that came with the ORS olive oil relaxer kit and rinsed, then lathered again and left it on for two minutes.

After rinsing I used my VO5 moisture milks conditioner because the kit only came with the Replenishing Pak deep conditioner and I really like using a regular conditioner before deep conditioning. After that I used the Replenishing Pak and sat under the dryer for 15 minutes, then rinsed.

THE DYE

Ok no warnings necessary, I only dyed my hair black. Also this dye is strictly organic, its made from the Noni plant. That aided in convincing me because I used to drink teaspoons of Noni every morning when I was younger.

The dye is called BSY Noni Black Hair Magic. This can be found on Amazon for about $9 .

Its so simple to use, just put it in your hands and lather it up in your hair. Leave it for about 10 minutes, rinse and voila--> Black Hair!

After that I applied Aphogee Green Tea & Keratin spray and roller set my hair.

After ten weeks of stretching my relaxer, I've decided to go ahead and relax. It is relatively early in comparison to how long I usually stretch. Lets just say I'm a little fed up of dealing with my new growth and I think its breaking.

I know almost every time I post, I have some sort of imaginary hair problem. I always think its breaking too much, shedding too much or too rough. I guess I'm just overly concerned, but I just think its breaking again, especially since I have so much new growth.

Well this time I'll be using the ORS Olive Oil Relaxer. Inside the box, there is the activator, the relaxer base (no-lye), Creamy Aloe shampoo, the Replenishing Pak, the Wrap/Set Mousse and the Oil Moisturizing Hair lotion.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Its been a few weeks since my henna experiment and I don't think henna is for me. I mean my roots (new growth) are particularly strong but my relaxed hair is ridiculously weak. I now have to be handling my hair with the extreme care I had to use when I just started my journey. I'm not sure why because I've been swamping my hair with baggying, moisture treatments and deep conditioning. My hair just feels weak.

I'm not even sure about the issue it is having because its not dry (like it has a protein overload) and it isn't mushy (like its over-moisturized). I just don't get it.

I was thinking maybe its because I didn't do a claryfying shampoo wash, but I didn't do it because I didnt want to dry out my hair after using henna, which is said to be very drying.

So I've decided that I won't be using henna again. Its a wrap for that.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

I'm sorry for the delay but I didn't feel much better after having the flu for days, and I'm back at school with the beginning of a hefty workload.

This is just a quick post to give my final thoughts on the henna.
I followed my deep-con with the application of my Aphogee Green Tea leave-in and a roller set. Maybe it didn't help that my roller-set was air-dried, but I just wasn't feeling any better. In the morning I took the rollers out and pinned the curl in the shape it formed from the roller.

I don't think I noticed a lot of changes in my hair directly after the henna.

The next day I combed out my curls and did a half-assed bun for my flight. After one of the worst flights ever and a painful ear popping session, I was finally in New York.

When I tried to comb through my hair that night to prepare for my journey back to school, I noticed subtle hints of reddish/brown and my roots that seemed to declare a rebellion.

Though I didn't see a difference after the henna on my strands, my roots feel like champions lol.

Since getting back to school I've been baggying/green house-ing my hair, not for any "henna hardening" reasons but just because in my mind that helps my hair grow and keeps my ends well moisturized.

I'm not sure how I'm going to stretch my relaxer really long this time, but I'm gonna try!

Monday, January 9, 2012

So I've been sick for a couple of days now, so I literally forced myself for apply the henna. I was a little concerned about the color of the henna when I finished mixing. It wasn't green like what I saw other henna users using. Every other site was saying "beware of black henna". My mix wasn't black, it was more dark brown. I did a google search and found a picture of a mix that resembled mine. Also the supplier's site that I purchased it from said it was body art quality, so I figured it was safe, hoped for the best and applied it.

1st half: whole head done (kinda dark):

I figured it would have been better if I allowed it to touch my skin rather than my shirt because I really have no shirts with me here that I can mess up. Plus the henna would just wash off.

One dilemma was that I only had one glove to use so my other hand stayed in the paste more than I wanted it to.

just showing how messy it is

I still have the reddish stain on my palm (sorry about the bad camera quality).

After that, I wrapped up my hair in plastic and went to bed. I mustered up enough strength to get up about 10 or so hours later. I'm not sure how that affects the henna or my hair but whats done is done.

After that I shampooed twice, I mostly just allowed the water to get rid of the henna instead of shampooing a lot. I applied a moisturizing conditioner and allowed it to stay while I watched The Real Housewives of Atlanta. After rinsing I applied my ORS Olive Oil Replenishing Conditioner and some coconut oil to deep condition my hair. I've had the ORS in my head for hours now because I don't have a dryer and I need it to penetrate my hair as much as possible and because I'm lazy! lol

Sunday, January 8, 2012

If I were my hair I would be super mad with me. I have thoroughly abused my strands with heat. I know that my last post had something to do with me treating my hair better because of my flat iron frequency, but I fell back from that yesterday. Its just that there are so many events at holiday time!

So I had some henna that I bought from eBay a while ago and figured I would redeem myself.

I found a few videos on YouTube about how to mix the henna. They had the basics but some used different 'extras' like lime juice, apple cider vinegar or conditioner. So I just took the things I had in stock to make my own.

For my mix I used:

henna (1 pack)

water

conditioner

lime juice

a tad bit of grapeseed and olive oil

after mixing to a yogurt-y texture, I put the bowl on a plastic bag and left it for 24hrs (and then some). Apparently that is to release the dye.

I'm not doing this henna treatment for color, but I just wanted to do what experts said was right.

Here's a very helpful video from MopTopMaven on YouTube about benefits, mixing instructions and application.

About Me

Hey!!

I really decided to begin this journey to healthy long hair because I changed climates (hot Caribbean weather to cold American winter) and I noticed my hair was not liking it. My hair also wasn't liking the fact that I didn't know how to take care of it, so I started finding out how to treat my hair and not subject it to scissor happy stylists who do not treat my hair with respect.

So you're more than welcome to join me in getting the results desired and hopefully you will learn from my mistakes too. :)